


Music Man

by tsundo



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers: Prime
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-09
Packaged: 2020-08-13 10:29:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20172751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsundo/pseuds/tsundo
Summary: He’s afraid and so are you. But music always seems to communicate what you want and convey how you feel, as long as he’s there to hear it.





	Music Man

“Ugh, I’m so bored!”

This was the tenth time that Miko had repeated this phrase within the hour. Needless to say, it was annoying Ratchet to no end, especially since he was stuck on bridge duty where the other Autobots were gone and Jack and Raf were out on patrol with their partners. Bulkhead and Optimus were on a mission elsewhere, leaving Miko out of the mission since it was too dangerous and her habit of following them through the ground bridge sometimes made things get out of hand. Especially when she accidentally put herself in danger. Meanwhile, you, having gotten off your shift early for the day, were on your way to the base to hang out and see whether or not Optimus was home. Mainly just to see if he was ok and all. Maybe also because you wanted to see his face. After all, you found Optimus pretty endearing and a lot of other things. When you approached the base, the gates opened to let you in, Ratchet having seen the motion detector go off and inform him that you were here. When you came into the base, you were a little disappointed to just see Ratchet and Miko at home, but you still gave them a friendly smile when you got out of the car.

“Ah, (y/n), you’re here, can you watch over Miko and entertain her?” Ratchet said. He then sent you a look of I’m getting a little annoyed here and need her out of here to concentrate.

“Yeah! Of course,” you replied. “Oi, Miko!” you called out. You pulled out your electric guitar from the back of the car and held it up towards her direction. “Jam session?” Miko jumped up from the couch and shouted a loud YES! before scrambling to get her own guitar. “We’ll go to a far part of the base, you might hear us faintly though, Ratchet,” you said, giving an apologetic smile.

“It’s better than Miko yelling about how bored she is,” Ratchet sighed, going back to his work. You saw Miko bound down the stairs and jump up in down and excitement and you motioned with your head for her to follow you down the hall.

“Jam room?” Miko asked.

“Jam room,” you smiled. When the two of you got there, you hooked up your guitars and started to tune the strings before giving it a loud strum, the noise echoing through the hallway. “Alright,” you said before turning towards Miko. “You wanna learn a song?”

“Yes!” Miko exclaimed. “What song is it this time?” she then asked. You gave a soft laugh and plucked a few notes on the strings before answering.

“American Idiot by Green Day,” you said, a mischievous smile curling at your lips. The two of you got to it, spending the next few hours teaching Miko the notes to the song before pulling up a recording of the drums and the bass and setting up a microphone. “You ready?” you said looking back towards Miko. She nodded vigorously and you started the song, with her joining in soon after. You leaned towards the mic when the words came and you began to sing.

_Don't wanna be an American idiot_   
_Don't want a nation under the new media_   
_And can you hear the sound of hysteria?_   
_The subliminal mind-ff America_

You bounced along to the beat as Miko laughed with your excitement. You knew you were going to have to censor yourself for the next verses, you didn’t want to get chewed out by June for swearing or especially using a word you weren’t comfortable using yourself.

_ Welcome to a new kind of tension_   
_All across the alien nation_   
_Where everything isn't meant to be okay_   
_Television dreams of tomorrow_   
_We're not the ones who're meant to follow_   
_For that's enough to argue_

_Well maybe I'm the America_   
_I'm not a part of a redneck agenda_   
_Now everybody do the propaganda_   
_And sing along to the age of paranoia_

Your sounds had echoed down the hall to the main room where Ratchet gave a small sigh to the noise. _Ratchet, are you there?_ Optimus’ voice came through the com. _Bulkhead and I need a ground bridge back._ Ratchet walked towards the lever for the ground bridge, absentmindedly walking to the beat you were putting out and turned the ground bridge on for Optimus and Bulkhead to come back. When the two came through the ground bridge, Bulkhead and Optimus immediately noticed the new music that was filling the air.

“Hey, Miko’s learned a new song!” Bulkhead exclaimed, going towards the source of the noise. Optimus didn’t follow until he heard your voice faintly in the direction Bulkhead was going. Out of curiosity, he went down the hallway to see you singing passionately against the microphone, strumming your guitar with energy. When he heard your voice though made his spark jump.

_ Welcome to a new kind of tension_   
_All across the alien nation_   
_Where everything isn't meant to be okay_   
_Television dreams of tomorrow_   
_We're not the ones who're meant to follow_   
_For that's enough to argue_

The guitar solo came up and you simply just had fun with Miko, trying to be as loud as possible as you strummed along, the notes coming to you as if they were natural. When the solo ended, you leaned forward again towards the mic.

_Don't wanna be an American idiot_   
_One nation controlled by the media_   
_Information Age of hysteria_   
_It's calling out to idiot America_

_ Welcome to a new kind of tension_   
_All across the alien nation_   
_Where everything isn't meant to be okay_   
_Television dreams of tomorrow_   
_We're not the ones who're meant to follow_   
_For that's enough to argue_

The song ended and you looked towards Miko again with a large smile. Miko reciprocated it before she caught sight of Bulkhead who’d been watching.

“Bulkhead! Did you see? (y/n) taught me a new song! What’d you think?” Miko beamed.

“Awesome!” Bulkhead exclaimed. “(y/n), I’ve never heard you sing before, you’re really good and I can tell you’re a good teacher to Miko if she can learn a song this quick.”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” you said, a slight pink coming to your face out of embarrassment. “Just a hobby, y’know?”

“You have a very beautiful voice, (y/n),” Optimus said as he reached the jam room. Your face flushed red this time and you cleared your throat.

“Thanks, I um. I know another song, it’s not punk though,” you said, looking towards Miko. She gave a slight look of disappointment but you readjusted your guitar. “I wrote it myself, actually.”

“If it’s alright, I’d love to hear it,” Optimus said.

“Come on, let’s go,” Miko whispered loudly. She gave you a wink as Bulkhead lifted her with his servos and left, leaving just you and Optimus in there.

“Promise you won’t judge me?” you asked Optimus, suddenly feeling nervous.

“I have no reason to judge something you spent time and effort into, (y/n),” Optimus replied. “If it puts you at ease, I promise.” You gave a soft laugh and looked at your guitar before letting out a quiet sigh.

  
“Ok,” you said. You took a deep breath before you started singing the song. Your voice was softer this time, full of love and affection as the lyrics you wrote came out of your mouth. This was a love song and you were performing it to the very person you wanted to show this to. When the song ended, you awkwardly shuffled your feet, setting the guitar down to the side and cleared your throat.

“What do you think?” you asked.

“You said you wrote this song?” Optimus asked. You nodded and he paused for a moment before asking another question. “Who is this song for?” You felt your breath hitch and you looked away in embarrassment.

“Not… anyone you know,” you said. He frowned for a moment before getting up from his sitting position and looking at you.

“Thank you for performing it to me, I’m hope whoever this is that this song is meant for gets to hear it someday,” Optimus said with a small smile before walking off. You watched him walk off and gave a quiet sigh before speaking.

“I wrote it for you,” you said quietly when he got out of earshot.

The entire time you had been singing the song you wrote to Optimus, Optimus couldn’t help but feel a twinge in his spark. Perhaps it was just how he saw you but something bothered him about the idea of you being in love with someone else. It was an irrational feeling and Optimus knew himself that whatever these feelings he had towards you were temporary and were going to go away eventually. It hurt. Just a little. Optimus had only come to the conclusion that he was in love with you by chance. You had just laughed a little too much at something you found funny that the kids did and doubled over, having ended up coughing with how much you laughed and quickly going back into a laughing fit. Optimus watched you the entire time, he was enamoured with your smile, your laugh sounding like absolute music in his audio receptors and something immediately clicked in him that he was in love with you.

Now, after hearing this song, he couldn’t help but think that this song was meant for someone else, someone human, someone who’d caught your eye perhaps at work or somewhere else. Optimus knew it wasn’t realistic to think you’d be interested in him, especially when he knew the relationship between human and Cybertronian in a romantic sense was nearly impossible and absurd to think of. The best way to approach this was to avoid you and make these feelings go away as soon as possible. So when Optimus walked off, he left behind something he didn’t want to. The rest of the day, Optimus avoided you, often using excuses to avoid seeing you or being around the children when you were there, overlooking them so they didn’t do anything stupid. It provided Ratchet some solace from all the chaos with how you were helping out and “dading” them as Miko liked to call it. Most times she’d call you the cool uncle though. Optimus would catch you glancing at him every now and then with worry, his optics meeting yours every now and then and watch you look away with embarrassment as you went off to do something else to distract yourself.

“Optimus,” Ratchet sighed one day, when the two were alone in the base. “I can’t help but notice your lack of presence lately in the base, care to explain why?” Of course. His old friend would always notice when something was wrong and inquire when Optimus was alone just with him since Optimus had to look like a leader in front of everyone else, where no vulnerability was shown. He couldn’t. But if it was just with his old friend...

“It’s nothing to worry about, old friend,” Optimus replied. “I’ve been working harder lately, so I apologise for my lack of presence in the base.”

“Uh huh, and how long is this going to last?” Ratchet asked, slight disbelief in his voice.

“Why are you asking that?” Optimus asked.

“Because I know how you get when someone becomes romantically important to you, Optimus,” Ratchet sighed. “You get all distant and shut yourself in, waiting for the feelings you have disappear. It’s happened before and I’ve seen it time and time again. You may think I haven’t noticed but the way you look at (y/n) tells it all.” Optimus didn’t respond and only looked aside with a sad look.

“I am afraid, Ratchet,” Optimus said truthfully. “Afraid that they do not reciprocate the same feelings I have towards them.” Ratchet crossed his arms and let out a sigh.

“Go talk to them, Optimus,” he said. “They’re up on the roof of the base.” Optimus didn’t need any further pushing to get him to go up. When he neared the roof, he heard you singing again. His optics caught sight of you laying down, strumming a ukulele and singing softly to the sky, watching the clouds go by. How you managed to survive this Nevada heat was something Optimus could never figure out but you were content and serene. But the song you were singing was different this time. His audio receptors picked up every lyric your voice produced.

_Oh would you be so kind_   
_As to fall in love with me? You see I’m trying_   
_I know you know that I like you_   
_But that’s not enough, so if you will_   
_Please fall in love, I think it’s only fair_   
_There’s gotta be some butterflies somewhere_   
_Wanna share cause I like you_   
_But that’s not enough so if you will_   
_Please fall in love with me_

He listened intently to the song, standing there for a moment until you finished singing. Your eyes noticed Optimus to the side and you sat up with a red flush on your face.

“Optimus!” you said. “I-I didn’t see you there,” you stuttered. You gripped the ukulele close to yourself and gave him an awkward smile.

“Was that another song you wrote?” Optimus asked. You gave a light chuckle and strummed the ukulele once before looking up at him. He sat beside you on the roof and you felt your cheeks heat up even more in the Nevada heat.

“No, but it’s a song I’ve been meaning to learn for a while,” you explained. You didn’t speak for a moment before looking at him. He’s been avoiding you for the past few weeks and honestly it hurt to not see him as often as you did before. You didn’t say anything of course since maybe he figured it out. That you were in love with him and he didn’t feel the same. The conversations you had with him weren’t the same and every now and then you’d send him looks to see if he was paying attention and trying to figure out what was going in that processor of his. But now he was sitting next to you, looking at the scenery. A light breeze blew through, welcoming on this sunbaked rock and Optimus watched as it tussled your (h/c) hair, his optics holding an affectionate gaze towards you.

“Was this song meant for someone as well?” Optimus then asked. You gave a light laugh and looked off in the distance.

“Yeah. I’ve been having some, trouble with my emotions lately,” you said truthfully, absentmindedly strumming the ukulele. “There’s this guy.” Optimus picked up on that. This person was male. As were you, which gave Optimus some hope in his spark but he continued to listen, letting you speak. “And he’s brave. Handsome, tall,” you said, giving hints. “A natural leader, has the best smile that he, he only gives to me...” you then looked down, your face heating up and becoming red. “The most bright blue eyes I have ever seen in my life. And I can’t help but think. Maybe he isn’t into me as much as I’d like to think he is.” You waited anxiously for a response from Optimus but didn’t get one. You bit your lip, regretting what you said before he finally spoke.

“I, too, have been having trouble with my emotions lately,” Optimus said, his optics watching you intently, half lidded and a small smile on his face. “I’ve fallen for someone but I am… afraid of how they feel towards me. So I’ve been distant and avoiding them. Even if they’re the most handsome person I have seen on this planet. That my feelings were just something I felt entirely on my side and that maybe… they aren’t into me.”

“Y’know, it’s easier to deduce who you like when you don’t interact with humans that much,” you teased, a smile growing on your face.

“When did I say that they were human?” Optimus replied back, a smirk on his face. You punched him playfully in the arm and couldn’t control the giddiness in you.

“Hey,” you then said. “Y’know the guy I like already heard the song I wrote for him,” you said, giving him another smile.

“Perhaps this guy you like would like to hear it again,” Optimus suggested. You gave a friendly scoff and strummed your ukulele.

“I’d be happy to.” So you began to sing the song again, Optimus humming along to the song as if he’d heard it on repeat so many times, his servos lifting you by surprise, a slight hiccup in your voice in response to where he placed you on his shoulder. You let out a little laugh as you continued to sing, nuzzling a little closer to his helm.


End file.
